WASHINGTON — Ravaged by black lung disease, retired coal miner Gary Hairston stood with nearly 100 other underground workers and advocates on Tuesday in front of the federal agency charged with protecting the lives of miners.

The West Virginia native had one message: Stop mine operators from exposing workers to deadly levels of the toxic dust that’s now causing a surge in the most virulent form of black lung.

For years, he said he had been coming to the capital with hundreds of others to plead with lawmakers to impose stricter limits on silica dust — a carcinogen in mines that’s far more dangerous than coal dust and has been singled out by health experts as the reason why so many younger miners are now suffering from the incurable illness.

“I hate to get up here and cry,” he said. “I've

See Full Page